Strength With Time
by Rebecca Parker
Summary: Riley gets a call to come back and help deal with the current situation. Takes place around the time of "Gone".


TITLE: Strength With Time (1/1)  
  
AUTHOR: Rebecca Parker  
  
EMAIL: Rebecca@bizarroland.com  
  
RATING: PG  
  
SUMMARY: Riley gets a call to come back and help deal with the current situation.  
  
SPOILERS: Up to "Wrecked"  
  
FEEDBACK: Yes Please!  
  
DISTRIBUTION: All the usual suspects. All others, please ask first.  
  
DISCLAIMER: Joss and Mutant Enemy own all.  
  
DEDICATION: To my Jeneral. I suppose this meets your challenge; I hope more that it meets to your liking. Thank you for everything.  
  
  
  
  
  
The Sun Cinema's lights are dimmed as the young man passes beneath them. His eyes are, as always, trained for movement in the shadows, and his fingers are clutched around the stake in his jacket pocket.  
  
It's been many months since he strolled the streets of Sunnydale, but he knew that some things never changed.  
  
He's only been back in town for an hour, and he's not sure where he's heading. Her house is in the other direction, and he comforts himself with the fact that she wasn't his first destination. "Strength with time" had been his credo, and Riley Finn had always been the one to follow through.  
  
It was why he had stuck around in Sunnydale for so long, and it was why he ultimately left when he did.  
  
What had brought him back had nothing to do with follow through, or strength, but a call from a desperate old friend in need of a familiar face.  
  
He had remained, for almost a year, completely oblivious to what went on back in Sunnydale, and the news, when told to him during that call, surprised him more than he thought he was able.  
  
Buffy had died. Buffy had been resurrected. Buffy was having a secret sex affair with Spike.  
  
"Strength with time," Riley had repeated to himself, and it comforted him, although not as much as usual.  
  
He passes the Bronze, his eyes not focusing on it for long before he's taking in the lay of the street ahead of him. He's constantly surprised that, even at 3 AM, and even in a town like Sunnydale, there are always people on the street.  
  
He can tell they're people. His skills are more sharply honed than ever.  
  
He picks up his pace and passes by his old haunts without stopping for a second glance. He's trying to forget that place exists like he's trying to forget that part of him exists.  
  
He starts to shake as he turns the corner, and he thinks maybe he wasn't gone long enough.  
  
But the lights above get brighter as he passes the seedier parts, and, suddenly, he knows where he's going. It had been one of his last stops before leaving Sunnydale, although his intentions this time were different.  
  
He didn't plan to make a scene. He didn't even plan to show his face. He only wants to see if what he was told was true. Because even though he knows he wasn't lied to, a part of him won't believe it until he sees proof of it for himself.  
  
But when he arrives minutes later outside Spike's crypt, the sounds coming from inside are enough for him, and he turns around and heads back in the direction he came from.  
  
"Strength with time," he says again, and his hands don't shake this time, they clench themselves into a fist.  
  
+++++  
  
She looks so different from the last time he saw her, and he looks at her with a new perspective. Her features are sadder, he notices, and as he reaches out to take her hand, he chides himself for being so oblivious.  
  
A Key. She was a Key, and Riley never even knew. That was the secret Buffy had kept from him, he realizes, and he hangs his head low and wonders how things could have been different.  
  
He still can't believe she found him- that a 15 year old had somehow gotten past all the red tape and got him on the phone. He still can't believe that out of all the people in Sunnydale, she had been the voice on the other end, begging him to come home.  
  
But Sunnydale wasn't home to him anymore, and he had initially declined. He hadn't known anything at that point, and, looking back, he was beginning to think it had been best that way. But Dawn had filled in the many blanks, and Riley had no choice. He had cared about the girl, and still did. He understood what she tried to express to him; he could identify with her and the way Buffy had pushed her out and closed herself down. Again.  
  
He smiles at her as she tells him about school, and he stares at the way her face betrays her words. "Dawn, you're not telling me everything," he says to her, and he can tell that, at once, she's annoyed by his accusation and comforted by it.  
  
"She's happy that I noticed," he thinks to himself, and he can't help but feel that familiar anger at the Slayer for making people feel this way.  
  
She tells him about skipping classes. A little more prodding, and she tells him about the stealing. He nods as if he understands, which he does, in part. He knows what its like to do things for attention, as stupid and harmful as they may be. He knows what it's like to want Buffy to notice him so badly.  
  
She tells him again about how she found out about Buffy and Spike, even though he's heard it before and doesn't want to hear it again. But he lets her talk because he can tell she needs it. He nods and clasps his hands in front of him, and, when she's done, he tells her he's not sure he can do anything about it.  
  
Everyone's on the outs with each other lately, she tells him. The news of Anya and Xander's wedding comes as the first happy surprise, and the news of Tara and Willow's breakup gets heaped onto the pile of sad ones. She tells him about Willow's obsession with magic, and he wants to hold Dawn as she tells him of the night of the car crash and shows him the brace still on her wrist.  
  
He has trouble understanding how much everyone has changed in the year since he left, and he finds himself shaking his head in disbelief as it all sinks in.  
  
He wonders what happened to the people he left behind and what had become of them, and he offers to get Dawn a drink from the fridge so he has a chance to walk off the anger that's taken him over.  
  
Neither of them expected Buffy to be home for hours, so, when he finds her hiding behind the frame of the kitchen door, he's certainly surprised. "Buffy," he says, and he feels frustrated that, with one new look at her, he's back in the place he was a year ago, a man wanting her so badly and knowing he couldn't ever truly touch her.  
  
She looks him over before saying anything and, when she does, she's telling him to leave. She's telling him it's all none of his business and that he never should have come back, and he just stands there, watching her.  
  
Dawn comes up beside him, and tells her sister that she invited him. "Some people actually still care, Buffy," she says, and he can tell that this is the first time the sisters have talked like this.  
  
He starts to excuse himself, but Dawn won't let him go. "Stay, Riley," she tells him, and he's not going to argue with the lady. She was the reason he was here, the one who actually needed him and showed it.  
  
"Buffy," he says, and he can tell the Slayer doesn't want to hear anything he has to say. She's still hiding behind herself, and Riley reaffirms to himself that some things indeed never do change. "Dawn's worried about you."  
  
"Dawn should be worried about the severe grounding she's going to get," Buffy says angrily, and she starts to move towards her sister, who moves behind Riley.  
  
"Talk to her, Buffy," he says, and he can see underneath all her bravado that Buffy's hurt by what she heard. He watches her stop and consider for a moment, and he can almost see the thought process as she looks from him to Dawn.  
  
"Alone," she says, and Riley's not surprised. He never imagined his homecoming would be a happy event, and he nods at her. She's staring at him with that steely gaze that always turned him cold on the inside, and he starts to walk towards the door.  
  
He stops and turns back, and he notices how uncomfortable the two of them look together. "Wait," he says, and he can see Buffy open her mouth to argue. "I just want to say goodbye. Do it right this time."  
  
"I thought it was fine the last time," Buffy says, and somehow, Riley can tell she's lying. Somehow, despite all his doubts and all his misgivings, he can tell she was hurt as much as he by her exit, but he's too tired to try to work through the façade she's put up and perfected.  
  
"With Dawn," he says, and he reaches out his hand to the teenager. She steps forward and takes it, and Riley leads her outside onto the back porch before Buffy has a chance to argue.  
  
Once outside in the brisk night air, he shuts the sliding door behind him and turns to Dawn. He takes a deep breath and smiles at her. "Seems I wasn't such a big help after all."  
  
"You were," she tells him, though he's not sure how the situation could be interpreted to make that statement true. "Thank you for coming back."  
  
"Thank you for wanting me," he says, and he sticks his hands in his pockets and they stand, staring at each other for a moment.  
  
"Do you have to go?" she asks, and he nods.  
  
"Places to be, kid," he says, and then stops. "I'm sorry, Dawn. I didn't mean that. I know you're not a kid." He smiles. "You always hated me for calling you that."  
  
"I used to," she admits, grinning. "But now-" She looks away out at some undefined object across the yard. "It's kind of nice. I mean, I guess not the whole 'kid' part, but the term of affection?" Dawn sighs. "Stupid, I know."  
  
"Things that bad here?" he asks, and he can tell by her prolonged sigh that they were indeed. "Listen," he says, stepping closer and putting his hand on her shoulder. "I'll stick around for a few days. Tell Buffy I left, but if you need me, you know where I am."  
  
"Really? You'll stay?" she asks, and he's almost touched by the enthusiasm in her voice.  
  
"For a little while," he admits. "I just want to make sure you're OK. But you need to work on this yourself, Dawn. I know it's a tall order, but if anyone has a chance to get through to her…"  
  
Dawn shrugs, and he can tell that neither of them are so sure about that. Obviously, someone got through, although he suspects that Spike got her to lower her defenses by making her raise them higher than ever.  
  
"I guess," Dawn says, and she shrugs. "Well, better not keep her waiting. She might just attack us both with garlic and holy water or something."  
  
Riley smiles, and he leans forward and places a chaste kiss on her forehead. "You know where I am," he says again, and she nods as she pulls away and heads back into the kitchen.  
  
Riley's left on the back porch, staring at his reflection in the glass door and wondering how so much time could pass, and how, at the same time, so much and so little could change.  
  
He walks down the steps and back towards his hotel, thinking he'll never quite unpuzzle the mystery of Buffy Summers, nor ever find peace with himself in the place where he had lost it.  
  
  
  
The End. 


End file.
